


Favour

by ToxicPineapple



Series: Writing Weeks I Didn't Finish [2]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: (Nobody gets hurt they just hit a fire hydrant), (but it's very minor), Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Amatoujou Week, Amatoujou Week 2020, Angst, Birthday, Car Accidents, Conversations, Driving, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Ft. Nia's headcanon about Kirumi and Taka being childhood friends, Getting to Know Each Other, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Relationship, THEY DESERVE IT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:08:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26788717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToxicPineapple/pseuds/ToxicPineapple
Summary: She glances around until she spots the librarian on duty-- well, not a librarian so much as a volunteer, but Kirigiri Kyoko is a college junior and thus intimidating regardless-- and thinks for a moment before marking her page with a pencil and starting to pack up her things.Frowning, Amami asks, “What are you doing?”“Helping you, presumably,” Toujou replies, tucking her textbook and all four of her notebooks back into her bag. (Cut her some slack, politics is a difficult major.) “But it would be rude to talk like this in the library, where people are studying.” Her eyes flicker to Amami, take in the sheepish smile that stretches across his features, and she breathes out, interrupting him before he can apologise. “And it is alright, I had barely started on my review when you came, anyway.”“Okay,” Amami leans himself against the table, rubbing the back of his neck and looking tired.---Amami asks Toujou to drive him to the airport.---Amatoujou week day one: Birthday/Disaster
Relationships: Amami Rantaro/Toujou Kirumi
Series: Writing Weeks I Didn't Finish [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2022718
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Favour

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Storyflight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Storyflight/gifts).



> written for amatoujou week day one! the prompt is birthday/disaster
> 
> hi story! i love you. i already rambled a shit ton on your other birthday fic, but here's this one, too. i was going to do all of amatoujou week but i have SO many projects to do... anyway, i hope you like this one, these dorks are going to Fall In Love. this was so freaking fun to write

Toujou is just flipping to the next page in her textbook when a pair of vibrant green eyes suddenly pop up in front of her, accompanied by a freckled face and a determined stare. Toujou feels her face flush slightly at the proximity and leans back, but Amami isn’t deterred; he leans slightly closer.

“Toujou-san, I need your help,” he says, and his voice is low, urgent, and Toujou has hardly ever heard Amami sound or look that serious before, his pale green eyes burning into hers. She can feel her heart skipping a beat a little.

Of course, it isn’t as though Toujou is actually close enough to Amami to have heard anything from him at all. They live in the same dorms building, and sometimes Toujou will come to this little coffee shop on-campus and Amami will be there, chatting up the barista or helping someone (usually Akamatsu, occasionally Ouma, though Toujou suspects Ouma only does this so Amami will buy him hot chocolate) with their homework, but Toujou is pretty sure that this is… actually the first time they’ve held a one on one conversation.

Which is inconvenient, considering that Toujou is seated in a library right now. She glances around until she spots the librarian on duty-- well, not a librarian so much as a volunteer, but Kirigiri Kyoko is a college junior and thus intimidating regardless-- and thinks for a moment before marking her page with a pencil and starting to pack up her things.

Frowning, Amami asks, “What are you doing?”

“Helping you, presumably,” Toujou replies, tucking her textbook and all four of her notebooks back into her bag. (Cut her some slack, politics is a difficult major.) “But it would be rude to talk like this in the library, where people are studying.” Her eyes flicker to Amami, take in the sheepish smile that stretches across his features, and she breathes out, interrupting him before he can apologise. “And it is alright, I had barely started on my review when you came, anyway.”

“Okay,” Amami leans himself against the table, rubbing the back of his neck and looking tired. Toujou feels a little flicker of sympathy for him in her chest. “Sorry, I know we don’t talk enough for me to be asking you for favours.” He  _ does  _ seem a bit uncomfortable, now that Toujou looks at him closer-- though as soon as she starts looking, she stops, in favour of actually packing her bag, like she’s  _ supposed to be doing.  _ “You’re just the only person I know who has a car, and I have a flight to catch to San Francisco in two hours, so--”

“Ah,” Toujou swings her bag over her shoulder and gestures for Amami to follow her out. He tucks his hands into his pockets and rolls his shoulders up to his ears as they walk, but rushes a little to grab the door for her. Toujou smiles. That’s cute. “I am not opposed to driving you, Amami-kun, but wouldn’t it be quicker to take shinkansen?”

“I can’t do shinkansen,” Amami says, in something of a rush; Toujou raises her eyebrows mildly. “I--” Amami winces a little, running the hand that he just used to open the door through his hair. Toujou frowns. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen him lacking so much composure before. “I’ve just got,” he gestures, “claustrophobia, and cars are bad too but shinkansen is especially crowded this time of day.” Honestly, the objection that Toujou usually gets when she brings up shinkansen is cost. Not everyone can afford to hop on the bullet train too often, especially not someone like Amami, who is out on trips almost as often as he is around on campus. But maybe he has a dollar or two to his name. Toujou certainly does, which is why she hadn’t initially thought about it. “I know I could always just call an Uber,” Amami rambles on, “but I--”

“I said I am not opposed to driving you, Amami-kun,” Toujou interrupts. She pulls her car keys from her pocket and jingles them, to emphasise the statement, before gesturing for Amami to follow her to where she parked. He ducks his head a little bit, but smiles, matching her brisk pace with something of an abashed look on his face. “It would be impolite to make you take an Uber when I am not doing anything today.” Aside from studying, but that’s all Toujou really does, anyway, is study. She can afford a field trip to Haneda, that’s fine.

“I can pay you for gas,” Amami offers. Toujou turns her head to deny him, but he’s already swinging his backpack off of his shoulder, opening the top pocket for his wallet. “I don’t have a lot of spare change right now, but this should be fine?” He looks up at Toujou, and then hands her a ten thousand yen note.

“...No,” Toujou hands back the bill. “That won’t be necessary, thank you.”

“I insist,” Amami insists, pushing it back into her hands. (Their fingers brush when he does so. Amami’s hands are warm, even through Toujou’s gloves.) “You’re doing me a really huge favour, I couldn’t just not pay you.”

“You can’t be paying me with ten thousand yen, either,” Toujou says, slightly irate, pushing the bill back into Amami’s hands and then closing his fingers around it. She squeezes, to show that she’s serious, and Amami’s eyes widen a fraction. “We will worry about compensation when you do not have a flight to catch at noon. Perhaps you can owe me a favour or something.” Toujou smiles, then releases Amami’s hands, gesturing over towards her car. “I am parked here.”

Toujou’s silver 2016 Honda Civic is in good shape, partially because she hasn’t had much reason to use it since it was given to her before she was legally allowed to drive, but also because she can’t stand messes, and so she’s tried to take good care of her car in the years that she’s had it. It is perhaps because of this that when Amami climbs into the passenger seat, he knocks his shoes against the concrete before doing so, to get off all the caked mud from their cut across the lawn.

It makes Toujou smile, at least. He’s thoughtful.

She puts her bag into the back seat and then climbs into the front, pulling on her seat belt. She doesn’t slide her key into the ignition until Amami is buckled, though, and she doesn’t actually start driving until she has Haneda Airport pulled up on Google Maps and her phone stuck to her dashboard, ready to get her there.

The drive should take about an hour, so Amami should, theoretically, be fine. Toujou pulls out of the parking space and starts down the road as instructed.

“Can I crack a window?” Amami’s voice is a little tight. Toujou glances at him, nodding. Obligingly, she cracks her own window, and catches the smile that he sends her way. He has a nice smile, Toujou thinks. That’s probably the exact smile that sent so many rumours around campus about Amami being a flirt. She doesn’t think he is, though, not really. He’s sweet, and charming, but Toujou doesn’t know that she would call him flirtatious. Someone flirtatious would probably be making some sort of small talk right now, not anxiously bouncing his leg and looking out the window once he and Toujou break eye contact.

Which means the small talk should… probably be initiated by Toujou. It isn’t that she particularly wants uncomfortable, forced conversation, just…

Amami looks like he could use the distraction.

“San Francisco, correct?” Toujou enters the highway and pulls into the carpool lane, glancing over at Amami once she isn’t actively changing lanes. “You travel often, Amami-kun. I feel as though you have gone to San Francisco before in the time that I’ve known you.”

“That’s probably true,” Amami chuckles. “I cycle through a lot of the same places. Reliving old memories, y’know?” He doesn’t stop bouncing his leg, but he does look at Toujou now, rather than staring out the window with his brow slightly furrowed. “San Francisco is a nice city. You might like it, there are parts that have the same sense of refinement as you have.”

Toujou smiles at the remark. “Is that so?” She considers asking Amami why he’s going to San Francisco again in the first place-- because she really doubts he’s doing all his traveling just to sight see; if Amami was really interested in that, then he should’ve taken a gap year rather than going to college fresh out of high school. “I am told good things about the civil rights in California as well, is that true?”

“Well,” Amami huffs out a laugh, “it’s definitely better than some of the southern states. Thankfully my travels have only brought me into Texas once, and I wasn’t there long.” He seems to relax when he says this, a nostalgic look crossing over his features momentarily before passing. Toujou hums, but doesn’t say anything. “A lot of big cities in the north are sort of judgemental beyond a certain point. It’s not uncommon to see gay couples walking around and holding hands, y’know, which makes me happy, but there’s a lot of hostile architecture, too. And the housing there is expensive as hell.” Amami lets out a low whistle. “Not that it would be a problem for me, of course,” and Toujou thinks,  _ if the smallest bill you’re carrying around is a ten thousand note, then I suppose it wouldn’t be,  _ “but it’s… something I think about.”

There’s a faraway look on Amami’s face. “Do you know someone who lives in San Francisco?”

“Yeah,” Amami replies, softly, as though without thinking. Then he jumps a little, a sheepish smile spreading over his features. “I mean, yeah, I do, I,” he clears his throat, “I know a  _ couple  _ of people who live in San Francisco, actually.”   
  


While Toujou doesn’t doubt that, she feels as though Amami is trying to hide something. Briefly, she contemplates pushing, and then decides against it, opting instead to ask, “How is San Francisco this time of year? What day is it… the third?”

“Right,” Amami’s voice is tight, but his expression is relaxed when Toujou glances over at him, so she thinks that she must have imagined it. “Well, by this point in America everything is decked out in Halloween decorations. Black and orange lights strung up. Especially in the wealthier residential areas. Some people go all out. It’s pretty cool to see,” he smiles slightly. “And I always try to be in San Francisco on the third, so I usually get to see it.”

“If you ever take any pictures, I would love to see them,” Toujou says. She glances at her directions, briefly, and frowns. The ETA is half an hour later than it said it would be before. She lifts a hand from the wheel, glancing between her phone screen and the road, and swipes up on the map, trying to figure out what the problem is.

“Toujou-san, hey,” Amami starts, and Toujou looks up, instinctively, in time to hit the breaks before they crash into the car in front of them. The highway, which was previously not all that crowded at all, suddenly resembles a parking lot, with cars barely moving in almost all of the lanes, all the way back to where Amami and Toujou are. On Toujou’s map, which she looks back at now that there is no longer a danger of a collision, the highway ahead of them is red, to indicate that the traffic is slow up there.

Frowning, Toujou looks over at Amami. “I… apologise, for that, Amami-kun, I should have been paying more attention to the road.”   
  


“It’s alright,” Amami dismisses. He shoots her an easy smile. “You’ve got good reflexes, there. I’m impressed.”

“Well, do not be  _ too  _ impressed,” Toujou’s frown deepens. She looks at the ETA, which keeps getting later the longer they sit here. “I think I will have to change the route we are taking if you are not to miss your plane. Can you look to see if there are any accidents on the highway here? That will be helpful in deciding how to proceed.”

“Yeah, sure,” Amami tugs out his own cell phone, tapping his finger against the power button to unlock it and then starting to type something in. Toujou turns her gaze back to the road, rolling just a little bit forward when the car in front of her does. This pace is  _ not  _ going to work. “Mmm, yeah, it looks like there’s a wreck about half a mile up from us.” He gives Toujou a sheepish smile. “Maybe I should’ve sucked it up and took the train. It probably isn’t too late, if you could drop me off at a station.”

Toujou eyes him. “I  _ could  _ drop you off, if that is what you would like, however…” she lifts her phone off the dashboard and searches up alternative routes, scrolling until she finds one that will get them there forty five minutes before Amami’s flight. “Alright. I am going to take another highway.” She bites her lip, and then turns on her blinker, glancing over at the lane on her left. She needs to  _ exit,  _ please. Please? Please.

The cars in the lane beside her shuffle along slightly, but one of them hangs back, to let her in. Thank god. Toujou switches lanes, and repeats this process with her blinker a few times until she is able to exit the highway entirely, glancing at her phone intermittently to make sure she’s going the right direction. The main roads are congested, likely due to the time of day, so Google Maps leads her down a back route, cutting through a more residential area. As Toujou navigates the streets, focusing on not hitting any of the cars parked around here, she sneaks another look at Amami.

His leg is bouncing again, his fingers curled loosely around the armrest, his brow furrowed and his gaze fixed out the window. Toujou wonders what the significance of today is, that he tries to be in San Francisco on this date every year. Perhaps he’s a Halloween lover? After all, aside from light decorations in the more commercial areas, Japan doesn’t really celebrate the holiday.

It seems… strange, though, to be rushing to catch a flight now, on October 3rd, if that is indeed the reason. Halloween isn’t for another month, really.

Toujou pulls around a traffic circle. “May I ask if there is any significance of this date for you?” The question causes Amami to bristle (at least, that’s what Toujou gathers; she isn’t looking at him now, her gaze focused on the road as she pulls up to a stop sign, but she thinks that Amami tenses) so she backtracks, clearing her throat quietly. “You do not have to answer, of course, I understand that we are hardly close, I was merely curious.”

“Nah, it’s fine, don’t sweat it,” Amami says, but he certainly doesn’t  _ sound  _ like it’s fine. His voice is tight. Really, Toujou has never seen him like this before, so… unwound. It isn’t as though Amami is some picture-perfect model of refinement or something, like, it’s not rare to see him with a hair or two out of place, but he’s usually composed. It makes Toujou a little nervous. “I, uh,” Amami clears his throat, “today’s someone’s birthday, that’s all.”

“Ah,” Toujou nods. “One of your friends in San Francisco?”

“Right,” Amami’s tone is light, but there’s an edge in it. Toujou thinks that he would like to come across as casual, but it isn’t quite working out for him. Idly, she wonders if she should drop it.

“It makes sense that you would want to fly in on their birthday, then,” Toujou says. She glances at the map, once, just to check she’s going the right way, then looks back at the street. “It is a thoughtful gesture of you.”

“Yeah, well,” Amami chuckles, an almost self-deprecating sound, but Toujou thinks that she must be imagining it, because aside from Amami being on the more self-deprecating end when it comes to his sense of humour, there’s really no reason for such a laugh in response to her remark. “She deserves it, y’know, it… it’s the least I can do for her, really.”

Her, huh. Toujou wonders if he’s flying out for a long distance girlfriend. That would explain the tenseness, she thinks, and the evasive way he’s acting about all of this, though Amami would be entirely mistaken in his assumption that Toujou cares whether he has a girlfriend or not. “I hardly think that flying to another country on a whim qualifies as the least you can do,” she says.

“It is after what I’ve done,” Amami replies, and his voice is so harsh, that Toujou doesn’t quite know how to reply. Amami seems to realise what he’s said after a moment, because he chuckles, another one of those self-deprecating sounds, except that he sounds more embarrassed this time. Toujou doesn’t look at him, so as to spare him to the humiliation, but she catches the sight of a blush spreading across his cheeks out of the corner of her eye. “Ah, sorry. I didn’t mean to say that.”

“It is alright,” Toujou turns onto another block. They should be reentering the main road in a moment here, just a few more turns left. “I do not know the context, Amami-kun, but you should know that I do not believe--”

“Toujou-san, cat,” Amami blurts.

“What?”

“I mean there’s a cat!”

Toujou looks at the road in front of her car; indeed, there is a cat asleep some distance away. At the speed Toujou is going, though, there’s no way that she’s going to be able to stop in time, so on instinct, she yanks the wheel, swerving out of the way and into someone’s lawn.

Or, rather, that’s the intent; the car bounces when the wheels hit the curb, and with the terrible sound of splintering metal, the they crash into a fire hydrant. Toujou keeps her hands locked on the wheel, but she can’t help flinching, closing her eyes and lifting her shoulders to her ears in an attempt to block out the awful sound. Amami’s arm flies across her chest, as though to keep her back in her seat (to protect her, Toujou thinks, but she isn’t really  _ thinking  _ about it) and for a moment there’s just that, the sound, the car, jerking forward and then back, and the sound of hissing water.

...Then, silence, save for the irregular thrum of Toujou’s heart, in her chest, and in her ears.

Well, to say that it’s actually silent would be incorrect. The fire hydrant is spewing water, and she can hear the hood of the car steaming, and if she focuses hard enough she can hear her breathes, laboured as they are. Her throat is dry and her hands, which are clenched tightly around the wheel, are shaking.

Amami’s arm is still thrown across her chest, but Toujou only notices this when he moves it, hears him shuffling in the passenger seat, the click of his seatbelt being undone. Then there’s a steadying warmth on both of her shoulders, and the murmur of Amami’s low voice, and she opens her eyes, seeking out his own.

“Toujou-san,” Amami’s eyes are crinkled at the edges, with concern, Toujou thinks, but they’re calm, stabilising, just as the weight of his hands on her shoulders is. His brow is creased, and there’s a bruise on his forehead-- did he hit his head when the car crashed?-- but otherwise he looks unhurt, leaning over from the passenger side to look at her. “Are you okay?”

“Ah,” Toujou finds her voice, somehow, blinking and shaking her head quickly. “I-I mean, yes, I’m alright, I’m,” she blinks again, harder this time, trying to gather her wits. She can barely see beyond Amami, barely register what’s just happened. “I’m alright,” she says again, like it’s all she can say. Amami’s brows shift but don’t raise. Toujou thinks he must be suppressing an incredulous expression, so she repeats, “I am fine, are you alright? Did you get hurt?”

“I hit my head on the window,” Amami grins, ruefully, lifting one of his hands from Toujou’s shoulder to rub his temple. “Big ow. It’s on me, though, for trying to dodge the airbag. I’m, uh,” he chuckles, “kinda claustrophobic, like I said. Don’t worry about it, I’m okay.” Toujou thinks she might worry about it nonetheless, but before she can gather her wits enough to say as much, Amami is moving again. “Here, let’s let go of the steering wheel and check out the damage, yeah?”

Toujou watches, her heart thudding heavy in her chest, as he gently removes her fingers from the wheel. Releasing it almost hurts, given how hard she was gripping the thing, but it’s a relief to lower her arms, even if she can’t quite let out the tension in her shoulders. If Amami notices her tenseness, he doesn’t say anything, carefully undoing her seatbelt for her and pulling it off, his fingers merely brushing her arm as he goes, a kind smile on his face.

He opens the door on the passenger side of the car and slips out, pulling his backpack from where it was sitting at his feet, and it’s only as he opens the door on the other side for Toujou to step out that she remembers something important.

“Amami-kun, your flight, you,” she fumbles, feeling more unsteady than she ever has, even as Amami offers a hand to help her out of the car. (She doesn’t quite take it yet, even though she can hear other people coming over, the low murmur of concerned voices, the fire hydrant still going.) “You should call an Uber, I, I will sit here and wait for a tow truck, you should--”

“It’s alright, Toujou-san,” Amami is still smiling, which Toujou doesn’t quite understand, standing there with his hand outstretched. “If I got on the flight at noon, I’d be getting to San Francisco at around five in the morning over there. That’s a pretty solid day, which is why I wanted to grab that flight, but I’m sure they can just move me to the four o’clock.”

Swallowing, Toujou starts to protest, “But--”

“I’m not going to leave you here, not when this happened while you were doing me a favour.” Amami doesn’t lose his smile, but his voice lowers, his gaze becoming more serious. He doesn’t lower his hand. “When I call an Uber, it’ll be for both of us, back to campus, okay? I’m not going to argue about this,” he adds.

Despite how certain Amami sounds of himself, Toujou feels… wrong, about it. Because of her, he’s going to miss his flight to San Francisco, probably miss out on time that he could be spending with that friend of his who lives there. It was important to him that he get to the airport on time; that’s why he asked her to drive him, after all. Now that she crashed the car, and now that he’s not leaving immediately to try to get on the plane, he’s going to be there four hours later than he wanted to be. It’s… it wouldn’t be right, for Toujou to accept that he’d like to stay with her, she should insist, push him off to call a car, so at least _ something  _ can come of today. She can handle this disaster.

And yet, Toujou finds herself reaching up and taking his hand, letting him pull her out of the car. Amami even steadies her when she stumbles, with a light, non-invasive hand on her waist, guiding her around to check the damages.

It’s nothing unfixable, Toujou doesn’t think, though she’s sure the city will charge her for damages to the fire hydrant. (It’s nothing that her parents can’t afford, though she’s certain they will be disappointed in her.) The hood of the car is wrecked, and there’s probably some damage to the engine, but aside from a crack on the bottom left side of the windshield, it’s… relatively alright. Again, nothing unfixable. It will, however, be a bit sad getting the car fixed, after she took such good care of it, but… it’s just a car. At least she and Amami are alright.

Amami takes charge in explaining what happened to the onlookers. Toujou registers a few sympathetic looks in her peripheral, and a few haughty ones (likely, they see her as an irresponsible college student who shouldn’t have a license, which isn’t unreasonable, she doesn't think, after this display) but Amami doesn’t ask her to speak, nor does anybody address her at all, really, and then eventually Amami phones a tow company, and while he speaks on the phone, his voice friendly but serious, he guides her over to sit down on the curb.

Before he joins her, Amami shrugs off his blue sweater, draping it over her shoulders. It smells faintly of cologne, and evergreen trees, and the combination is comforting. Toujou doesn’t stick her arms through the sleeves, but she wraps it further around herself, pulling her knees into her chest, even though she doesn’t necessarily deserve the comfort she gets from it. She listens to him settling down beside her, but doesn’t initiate any conversations, staring at her car, listening to the fire hydrant, just… wishing she knew how to apologise.

“Do you have any siblings, Toujou-san?” Amami asks. The question seems to come out of nowhere; Toujou looks over at him, her eyes slightly wide. His expression is casual, but guarded. She thinks that perhaps it might be a more loaded question than it seems on the surface level.

...Well. “I have step siblings,” Toujou replies, her tone neutral, aside from a slight shake to it.

“Is there much of a difference?” Amami’s eyebrows raise, and Toujou smiles slightly.

“I suppose not, if you grow up close to them, but I… didn’t, really.” She smoothes down her pants, watching her fingers shake on her leg. “I have never really known any of my step siblings, though there is a part of me that would like to. I think of them from time to time.” After a moment, she adds, “I do have someone who I consider to be more of a brother to me. A family friend who I was raised with. Our parents used to talk about us dating, but his being gay sort of complicated matters, as far as our prospective romance was concerned.”

“Haha, it would, huh?” Amami chuckles a little, tilting his head. “What’s his name? Your friend who’s like a brother, I mean.”

“Taka,” Toujou says, thoughtlessly, then corrects herself. “Ah, I meant, Ishimaru Kiyotaka, he attends our university, though he isn’t in your year.”

“Hmmm,” Amami’s lips purse, in thought. “Dark hair and red eyes and eyebrows on fleek?”

A smile creeps its way onto Toujou’s expression. “That is him.”

“Yeah, okay,” Amami smiles. “I can see you getting along with him. Like, we haven’t talked a bunch, or anything, but he seems the studious type, and you’re definitely that.” Toujou raises her eyebrows slightly, and Amami blinks, as though realising what he said. “I mean! It’s definitely not a bad thing, you just work really hard, is all. I just, whenever I see you, it seems like you-- not that I’m  _ always  _ looking or anything, it’s just--” Amami is stuttering, all of a sudden, and Toujou doesn’t really know why, but she giggles slightly, anyway, especially when Amami’s ears pink. It’s endearing.

“I am not offended,” she states, messing with one of the buttons on his sweater. “I do spend a lot of my time studying… Saihara-kun says I ought to take more breaks, but I wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

“You think this constitutes a break?” Amami grins. “I mean, you’re not studying, right?”

Toujou laughs, covering her mouth with a hand. “Well, I suppose that would be correct, but this is a bit of a disaster, so I wouldn’t say it’s the ideal.”

“It’s not so bad!” Amami protests, though he’s laughing too. “I mean, yeah, your car is wrecked-- I’ll totally pay for that if you want, by the way-- and I’m gonna miss my flight, but this is the first time I’ve really gotten to talk to you, y’know? And I’ve been wanting to for a while.” The admission makes Toujou’s face warm, just the slightest bit, but she doesn’t remark. “There are worse ways to spend your birthday.”

“Your birthday?” Toujou repeats, and Amami blinks.

“Did I say that?”

“You did,” Toujou tilts her head slightly. She keeps any accusation out of her tone; she isn’t suspicious, mainly just… confused, really. “Is it your birthday, Amami-kun? I thought that it was your friend’s birthday, in San Francisco?”

“It is!” Amami says, quickly. “I mean-- it is, it is her birthday, I didn’t lie about that, I just,” he chuckles, “it’s more of a lie of omission, really. I don’t like people celebrating my birthday, so I don’t tend to spread around that it is, that’s all. Of course, uh,” he frowns, “Akamatsu-san found out somehow anyway and on the condition that she wouldn’t tell anyone, I let her and Iruma-san drag me to breakfast to celebrate, which was why I was catching a noon flight, but, I really wasn’t lying about that part. It’s… my sister, Mina’s, birthday today, too.”

His sister? “Your sister lives in San Francisco,” Toujou says, more just as a way of getting the facts straight for herself. “Well, it makes sense that you would want to go visit her.”

“Haha, yeah,” Amami smiles, but it’s weak, obviously fake, and Toujou furrows her brow.

  
Then the smile falls.

“Uh, the truth is, Toujou-san, that--” Amami stops, looking at his hands, pressing his lips together and then looking back at Toujou. “It… you’re close with Ishimaru-senpai, right?”

Toujou blinks at the abrupt subject change. “Closer than I am with anybody else in the world,” she says, truthfully. Amami smiles, at that.

“Would you do anything for him?”

“Ah,” Toujou reaches to rub the back of his neck. “I suppose. I would take a bullet for him, if that is what you mean, though if he asked me to help him hide a body I’m not sure that I would…”

Amami laughs. “Well, you don’t have to go that far. I just wanted to know if you’d understand or not.” He averts his gaze. “The thing is, Toujou-san, my sister is lost. She’s… been lost, ever since I was fifteen, actually. I…” he trails off, and takes a breath, as though to stabilise himself, his expression unreadable. “I lost her, while we were in a crowd together, her hand just slipped out of mine, and… I haven’t seen her since then.”

“That’s… terrible,” Toujou murmurs, her brow furrowing.

“It’s not the best,” Amami admits, with a dry chuckle. “I’ve been looking for her all these years. And the rest of my sisters too, though, it’s kinda pathetic to admit that I lost all twelve of my sisters around the world, right?”

_ Twelve?  _ “I do not know if I would say pathetic,” Toujou manages, her voice a bit strained-- not because she is struggling to sympathise, but more from the information overload; it’s a lot to process, that Amami not only  _ has  _ twelve sisters, but also that all of them are lost. (No wonder he’s out of the country so often, though.) “But it is certainly extraordinary.”

“That’s a nice way to put it,” Amami chuckles again. He doesn’t meet Toujou’s gaze. “It’s not your average every-day situation. Definitely don’t think every older brother in the world is useless enough to lose  _ all  _ their sisters.”

“Amami-kun--”

“It’s fine,” he dismisses, waving a hand. “I’m used to it by now, it’s been ages since I’ve seen my youngest sister. She was the first lost, y’know, I snuck out at night while we were on vacation to go exploring and she snuck after me and I didn’t notice and I came back and she didn’t.” He stops, just for a moment, to catch his breath. “I know it’s just a date, and I shouldn’t fuss so hard, but I kind of feel like I owe it to them to be looking for them on their birthdays, y’know? Since it’s my fault they’re gone, and after all this time, I haven’t even been able to bring one of them home.”

Amami chuckles, but it’s a bitter, nasty sound, and Toujou feels her heart give a little squeeze, though whether it’s sympathy or something else, she can’t really say.

“I shouldn’t be dumping all of this on you,” Amami clears his throat, running a hand through his hair. “Your car just got wrecked. I’m sure I’ve put enough of a wrench on your plans for the day. We, uh,” he clears his throat, “I’ll get you that Uber after you work out the details of your car, and then, y’know, you,” he shrugs, “if you don’t want to talk to me anymore after that, I get it.”   
  


“Amami-kun, that is quite the conclusion to jump to when you haven’t given me a chance to speak,” Toujou says, sharply, though she feels bad about it when he winces, sparing her a glance out of the corner of his eye. She… geez. Toujou had always thought there was something melancholic about Amami. There have been moments in the past where she’s seen Amami off on the side of the room, either staring out the window or listening to somebody talk, and he’s seemed so quiet and lonely in a way Toujou wasn’t able to put a word to.

It makes sense, though, knowing… well, knowing what she knows now.

“I do not believe that a useless older brother would spend however long you’ve been searching looking for his sisters,” Toujou states, folding her arms across her chest. “I cannot tell you whether you are truly responsible for their losses, because I was not there, and if there were truly wrongs committed on your part, that would be your sisters’ rights. However, I think you should spare yourself some compassion, as you were only a child at the time.”

“Just because I was a--”   
  


“Amami-kun, I do not wish to interrupt you, but I sincerely do not believe that you would hold someone else accountable for the same thing if you were in my position right now,” Toujou frowns. “This is not to say that your feelings are invalid, I just think it is something to consider.” She takes a breath, to give Amami the chance to reply, but he doesn’t, so she keeps talking. “I do not wish to cut contact with you. Really, that was a silly presumption given that I have two friends at our university, and one of them I grew up with.” Toujou smirks slightly.

“Hey,” Amami frowns, looking over at her now. “I’m your friend, right?”

“Three friends, then,” Toujou amends. “I need all the assistance I can receive, Amami-kun, I wouldn’t kick you to the curb over something that happened long before I met you.” She shrugs. “If anything, it is admirable that you would keep searching in this manner, though I would request that you take good care of yourself in doing so. Frequent travel is a romantic notion even without a noble reason, but I understand that it can be very draining, physically and mentally. So long as you are doing this, I have nothing to be upset about.”

“Uh,” Amami smiles, now, but it’s a slightly sheepish smile. “You might have something to be upset about.”

Toujou sniffs. “I suppose we can work on it. It is just as well, because you will have to work on how you speak about yourself, as well. You ought to be at least a little bit proud of yourself for not giving up.”

“All the determination in the world doesn’t mean anything if I can’t produce results,” Amami grumbles, lowering his gaze again, his brow furrowing. “What good does it do my sisters if I don’t give up? They’re still lost.”

“They will know, when you do find them, that there has been someone in this world who has not stopped thinking about them all this time,” Toujou says, gently. She lifts a hand to rest it on Amami’s upper arm, waiting for him to return his gaze to her face. “And while it may be true that intentions do not spell out results, I am sure that you will find them in time, Amami-kun.”

“Are you?” Amami sounds almost desperate. Toujou doesn’t believe that he is on the verge of tears, per se, but his voice is slightly strained, like he needs the answer to be yes. “Because I’m not going to give up, I couldn’t, not while they’re still out there, but sometimes I…”

“It is a very human thing to feel discouraged,” Toujou rubs his arm, slightly, giving him a smile. “But yes, I meant what I said. It will take time. But if you do not give up, as I assume you have no intention of doing, then they will be found. I am certain of that.”

  
She is. Maybe it has more to do with the fact that it’s Amami, who chose to stay with her and miss his flight rather than take off and leave her behind, than any particular belief in fate, but… Toujou does believe he’ll find his sisters. She is certain that he is capable of that.

There is a moment of silence, wherein perhaps Amami processes her words, his expression difficult to read, and then he pitches himself forward, into her arms, his own wrapping tight around her shoulders.

Amami isn’t crying, still, but when Toujou lifts her arms to reciprocate the embrace, he trembles, slightly. “Thank you,” he mutters, his breathing slightly ragged in her ear. “I needed to hear that.”

“I am happy to say it,” Toujou responds, rubbing his back, lightly. “If you would like me to say it again, at any point, I will gladly do so.”

“Might take you up on that,” Amami sniffs a little, and chuckles, and Toujou feels the vibration of the sound through his chest, which is pressed against her own. “You’re really good with words, Toujou-san. I wasn’t expecting that.”

“I read a lot of books,” Toujou says, at once, which pulls a real laugh out of Amami; she smiles. “Consider it a birthday present, as I was not able to fulfill your request of dropping you off at the airport. Perhaps when my car is fixed, in the future, I will make it up to you.”

“I’d like that,” Amami pulls back, and when they make eye contact, there’s a smile on his face. It’s a different kind of smile than she’s seen thus far, more lopsided, more eye-crinkly and wry, but Toujou feels that it’s genuine. It makes her heart skip several beats, at any rate. “Maybe I can make it up to you, too, sometime, for all of this.”

“You do not have to,” Toujou denies.

“I want to,” Amami retorts, grinning. “Let me treat you to lunch when I get back from California, yeah? You can pick a nice spot and I can get to know you better. You already know my childhood trauma, so.”

Toujou laughs, feeling warmth blossom in her chest, and in her face. “If you insist,” she says, though she thinks she would say yes even if he didn’t.

“I  _ do  _ insist,” Amami raises his eyebrows. “I very much insist.”

“Alright, then,” Toujou lifts a hand from Amami’s back to cover her lips, smiling at him through her fingers. His eyes are the most striking shade of green. “I will look forward to it.”

She will. She hopes he has good luck in San Francisco, of course-- he deserves to find his sister, and his sister deserves to be found-- but when he returns… yes, it… it will be nice, to get to know Amami better, she thinks.

**Author's Note:**

> also yes rantaro is nonbinary they're just not out hence toujou using he/him over the course of the fic KFJDSLKF
> 
> it's very simp-ish of me to write rantaro two fics for his birthday but in my defense i fucking love storyflight so this one had to exist (shrug emoji) just how the pussy crumbles


End file.
